Poppy display will be part of Armistice commemorations
THOUSANDS of hand-crafted poppies in five metrehigh cascades will provide a stunning commemoration of the centenary of Armistice Day.
The ‘A Stillness Heard Around the World’ fourday festival at Bramhall Methodist Church will also feature a large-scale mock-up of the Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing, plus scores of floral portrayals of First World War poems and scenes.
The festival will close with a dedicated 11am service of Remembrance on Sunday, November 11, to honour the estimated 700,000 men and women who lost their lives, many of whom lived locally, plus those who died in subsequent conflicts.
The floral arrangements - comprising more than 50 themed designs made up of more than 3,000 blooms sourced from all over the world - are being put together by leading lights from the National Association of Flower Arrangement Societies in Cheshire under the watchful eye of Royal Horticultural Society gold and silver award winner Val Seed and her cosupervisor Chris O’Hara.
Bramhall Methodist Church member Val, also known locally as Val Everard, is working with more than 100 church members and local volunteers to stage the event.
Val said: “We hope the thousands of hand-crafted poppies that will decorate the exterior and interior of the church, together with the floral displays and reproduction memorials, will inspire visitors to remember and honour the fallen.
“We’d love to think the event will also encourage young and old alike to offer up personal thanks for those who survived - many of whom returned home both mentally and physically broken.”
There will also be an electro-folk concert by acclaimed First World War storytellers Harp and A Monkey on Friday, November 9, replica Tomb of the Unknown Warrior and Cenotaph memorials and a life-size walk-through trench. Light lunches and refreshments will be served in an imitation field kitchen.
Visitors can pay personal tributes to the fallen by planting wooden poppy crosses in the church’s front lawn. The recycled plastic bottle poppy cascades decorating the church frontage - have already been erected.
Festival admission is £5 per person (free for accompanied children). Concert tickets are £10 (including festival entry) with all profits to The Royal British Legion.